Two masters in Trieste: Dan Peterson takes the stage with Bogdan Tanjevic

The Sport Business Forum 2026 Preview kicks off in Trieste with two days of meetings, interviews, sports events and moments open to the public dedicated to sport as a civic infrastructure, a space for growth, a right of citizenship and a lever of cohesion for the community.

Promoted by Nord Est Multimedia, Il Nord Est and Il Piccolo di Trieste, with the contribution of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia and PromoTurismo FVG, main partner Banca Generali, charity partner Fondazione SIT and in collaboration with Trieste Campus, the Trieste preview will bring to the city some of the great protagonists of Italian sports together with representatives of institutions, the university world, associations, business and sports culture.

The Trieste stop opens the 2026 path of Sport Business Forum, a project conceived and promoted by Confindustria Belluno Dolomiti, Confindustria Veneto Est and Nord Est Multimedia Group, with the support of the Veneto Region. After the Trieste preview, the Forum will continue with the heart of the event in Treviso and Belluno from June 5 to 7, before ideally concluding in Gemona del Friuli on October 23 and 24, with a stage dedicated to sport as a tool for resilience, community and rebirth.

In Trieste, the program will be particularly dedicated to the relationship between sport and community: from the training of student-athletes to the right to practice sports, from urban spaces to opportunities for wellness and longevity, to the great stories of sports capable of inspiring different generations. These include the symbolic dialogue between Dan Peterson and Bogdan Tanjević, for a moment intended to bring together sports memory, vision and passion.

The first day, Thursday, May 28, will open at 5 p.m. in the Hall of Representation of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, with entrance from Piazza Unità d’Italia 1, with the meeting “Trieste on the move: sport as civic infrastructure.” After greetings by Fabrizio Brancoli, deputy director of NEM Northeast Multimedia Group newspapers with responsibility for Events, and Massimiliano Fedriga, president of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, the program will get into full swing with a focus on student-athletes and their future beyond sports.

For the occasion, a research paper will be presented by Alex Buoite Stella, professor of Physiology and president of the University of Trieste’s University Sports Committee. Next, the panel “Spaces, Resources and the Right to Sport” will feature a discussion between Ariella Cuk, president of Lunga Vita Attiva APS, Enrico Samer, president and CEO of Samer & Co. Shipping and Trieste Campus, and Furio and Marta Benussi, winners of the Barcolana 2025, urged by Marco Fachin. At the center of the dialogue will be accessibility to sports practice and the role of sport as a collective good, capable of affecting the quality of life, health, inclusion and vitality of cities.

Also on May 28, space will also be given to sports storytelling with “Leicester: ten years, the fable and the lesson,” a dialogue dedicated to one of the most iconic feats of contemporary soccer, with Enrico Bergianti and Alessandro Bientinesi, journalists and authors of the Being Leicester podcast, and Nicola Roggero, Sky Sport commentator.

Closing the afternoon will be the interview “Captains and wingmen, winning together” with Vincenzo Nibali, one of the greatest champions of Italian cycling, the protagonist of a dialogue dedicated to leadership, fatigue, building results and the value of teamwork even in the seemingly most individual sports. The meetings will be led by Fabrizio Brancoli and Andrea Schiavon, director of Sport Business Forum and SIT Foundation.

The evening will continue at 9 p.m. at the Trieste Campus with “Beyond the B of Bomber,” an interview with Christian Vieri by Giancarlo Padovan, former deputy editor of the NEM Northeast Multimedia group newspapers with responsibility for sports. The meeting will go through the career and human journey of one of the most representative strikers of Italian soccer, going beyond the public persona and the strictly sporting story.

The second day, Friday, May 29, will open with a morning dedicated to practiced sports. From 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., the “Sports in Longevity Pathways” event will be held at the Bruno Bianchi Municipal Swimming Pool, with competing sessions in swimming, dance, choreographed gymnastics, postural gymnastics, Nordic walking, chi kung, gong baths and equiland experiences. The activities will be curated by the associations of the “Longevity Paths” project of Lunga Vita Attiva APS, confirming the Trieste stage’s focus on the value of sports as a tool for wellness, sociality and prevention.

In the afternoon, at 4:30 p.m., Trieste Campus will host “For Me, Number One: Coach’s Word,” an interview with Dan Peterson, basketball coach, TV commentator and member of the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame. The meeting will be hosted by Fabrizio Brancoli and Roberto Degrassi, former journalist of the NEM Northeast Multimedia Group newspapers. Also enriching the event will be a special presence: also expected in the audience is former coach Bogdan Tanjević Peterson’s historic bench rival in the 1970s and 1980s. A longtime resident of Trieste, Tanjević will be invited to the stage for a greeting and a discussion that will symbolically bring together two of the greatest masters of Italian basketball over the past forty years.

With the Trieste preview, Sport Business Forum confirms its desire to tell the story of sport not only as competition or spectacle, but as a language capable of bringing together generations, territories, businesses, institutions and communities.